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(No Model.)

G. P. CHEW.

DIMiNISHED TONE VIOLIN.

No. 358,542,. Patented Mar. 1, 1887.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES F. CHEW, OF BRIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT.

DIMINISHE D-TONE VIOLIN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 358,542, dated March 1 1887.

Application filed December 14, 1885. Serial No.185,759. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES F. CHEW, a citizen of Great Britain, residing at Bridgeport, in the'county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and usefulImpr-ovementsin Diminished-Tone Violins; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention has for its object to producea dumb or diminished-tone violin for the use of beginners and for musicians while practicing. It is of course well understood that the sounds produced by persons when beginning to learn the violin are not such as charm the cultivated ear. The practicing, a1so,of good musicians is often a source of serious annoyance to invalids and to persons of a nervous temperament. On the other hand, it is absolutely essential to beginners, as well as to musicians, that both the quality and the purity of tone of a violin should be preserved; but it is notessential that the volume of tone should be anywhere near as great as the volume produced by an ordinary violin. I have therefore devised a violin for use in practice which, while it does not impair the quality or purity of the tones produced by the strings, does not increase their volume to any perceptible extent.

My invention is fully set forth and described in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part thereof, in which Figure 1 is a plan view, and Fig. 2 a side elevation, of my improved diminished-tone violin.

Aisthetail-piece, B the bridge, Cthe strings, and D the pegs.

The body E of my improved violin is simply a solid, piece of wood. The body, together with the neck F, may be made of a single piece,

. or may be made of two pieces and glued or otherwise fastened together, the object being to secure a practically non-resonant body to support and carry the strings, at the same time retaining the characteristics, as regards size, weight, &c., of an ordinary violin.

ried without departing from In order that my diminished-tone violin may have in every way the same mechanical effect upon the player as an ordinary violin, I provide a curved rest, G, for the chin, which is attached to the end of the body and whose outline corresponds with that of an ordinary violin. I also provide a stop, H, whose outline corresponds with that portion of an ordinary violin serving as a guide for the hand in fingering. I

he shape of the body is not an essential feature of my invention. I preferably, however, give it substantially the shape shown in the drawings. The neck, however, corresponds in shape with the neck of an ordinary violin. By making the body solid I limit the volume of tone produced by the instrument to that produced by the vibration of the strings alone that is to say, the tone produced by the vibration of the strings is not augmented by the vi bration of any resonant body.

It will of course be understood that the details of construction may be considerably vathe spirit of my invention.

I claim- 1. In a dimiuishedtone violin, the combination, with a solid non-resonant body and a neck, of the usual tailpiece, bridge, strings, and pegs, and a skeleton rest, G, whose outline corresponds with that of an ordinary violin.

2. The combination, with a solid non-resonant body and neck and atail-piece, ofthe usual bridge, strings, and pegs, and a curved skeleton stop, H, whose outline corresponds with that of an ordinary violin.

3. The solid non-resonant body and neck, skeleton rest G, and skeleton stop H, in combination with the ordinary tail-piece, bridge, strings, and pegs of a violin.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

CHARLES F. CHEW,

IVitnesses:

A. M. WoosTER, O. E. RUGGLES. 

